News release
KAUKAUNA — Kaukauna’s Midwest Carriers today received the 2023 Health Plan Hero award in a ceremony held in Washington, D.C.
Midwest Carriers leadership was recognized for its outstanding employer-sponsored health program by national healthcare industry professionals.
Midwest Carriers was honored alongside ten other winning businesses and participated in expert round table discussions with employees, human resource representatives, patient advocates, CEOs, and healthcare benefit design experts in Washington.
“We are honored to be recognized for the hard work that we have put into offering our employees and their families world-class health care, that is different than the status-quo,” said Renae Langel, Vice President of HR & Risk Management at Midwest Carriers. “For too long, we went with what we thought was the “norm” and paid the price in premiums and unnecessary out of pocket expenses. We realized that the only way to save money is to break away from the industry standard and offer better healthcare for less to our valued employees. Receiving the Health Plan Hero award helps us to serve as an example to other employers in our community of what kind of positive change is possible.”
Prior to 2021, the company was spending $1.8 million annually on plans that had $3,000 and $4,000 per individual annual deductibles.
Then in mid-2021, Midwest Carriers hired a new independent advisor and implemented a nurse navigation program before the new plan year.
In January 2022, they completed the transition to an independent TPA with a plan that offered a $1,000 deductible on major services and copays for office visits and prescription drugs. In addition, with projected savings, they were able to reduce premiums by 10%. By the end of the first plan year, they had seen $289,310 in medical and pharmacy savings through the nurse navigation program. That was a 17.6% savings to the company.
Through these advances, the plan was able to fully remove its deductible and further reduce its premiums by over 20% in 2023.
Today, members can access $0 specialty care and medications through the nurse navigation program. This has benefitted members like one driver and his spouse who had multiple knee surgeries done, all at no cost.
The members received care navigation support to local outpatient surgery centers with high quality marks and fair, bundled pricing. The nurse navigation program has even coordinated cutting edge therapy services to expedite recovery that would otherwise be excluded from plan coverage.
More details on Midwest Carriers’ Health Plan Hero award are available here.
